It was quite a shock to wake up to discover that there had been a slight frost overnight, not too suprising at 8000 feet I suppose. After breakfast at the hotel, we loaded the 'tour-bus' again and headed back down to lower altitudes, temporarily.
After winding through pine forests we came out of the trees to a view over a large blue lake, Lake Mono. We turned off the main road and drove down to a view point and discovered that the lake had been been part of an attempt to collect water and supply it for drinking water. This had some unexpected consequences and eventually the project was abandoned and the lake has been left to its own devices.
Further down the road we found a carpark closer to the lake and went to explore. The lake is surrounded by strange geological features that look like 'hoodoos' and also due its high salt content strange salt formations in the water. The lake is also home to huge numbers of water birds.
After buying some rather expensive fuel in the town of Lee Vining, we turned west off the US-395 onto the Tioga Road heading toward the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park (NP). The road climbed quite quickly through the Sierra Nevada mountains into spectacular scenery including Ellery and Tioga lakes. At Tioga Pass, some 9945 feet above sea-level, we entered Yosemite NP. The Tioga Road, passing through the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite NP, is only open between June and October as it is closed by snow for the winter months, this had some bearing on our progress through the park, not due to snow, but due to other facilities closing down in preparation for winter.
After the pass, we descended slightly into high altitude meadowland surrounded by peaks, some over 12000 feet high. We parked at a car park to take pictures of Lembert Dome, a monolithic rock peak with smooth sides sweeping up to its summit. Not long after this, near the Tuolomne Meadows Visitor Centre, we were expecting to find a choice of two places to get something for lunch. The park leaflets said the facilities were open during summer months, and as the temperature was in the 80s, we were fooled into thinking they'd be open. We had forgotten that summer ends on Memorial Day in mid September and the facilities had indeed closed two days before we got there. Having discovered this, we thought we'd carry on the the facilities at White Wolf about 25 miles further on.
Meanwhile, we stopped at Olmstead Point where we got spectacular views of Half Dome, perhaps one of Yosemites most iconic peaks. The views from here looking toward Yosemite valley were far-reaching. After a photo-stop, we continued on toward White Wolf through seemingly endless pine forests which left little to be seen. Somehow, we managed to drive past White Wolf, although it turned out it wouldn't have helped if we had seen the turning as the facilities there were closed too.
After another 25 miles of pine forest we dropped down to join the SR-120 at Crane Flat and turned south towards Yosemite Valley. Big Oak Flat Road, slowly winds down through more pine forest and then suddenly presents you with a huge view down into the valley as the road follows the cliffs through a series of tunnels down to the floor of the valley. From the view-points, we could huge views again into the park.
Down on the valley floor there is a one-way system around the park which we finally figured out and promptly left Yosemite valley to head towards Oakhurst where we had a hotel booked. This road, the SR-41, rapidly climbed up the opposite cliff from the one we had just descended and once through another tunnel, found us climbing up through more pine forests. The road climbed to well above 6000 feet again and speed limits slowed us down, but not as much as several sets of road-works. By now we were really hungry and should have stopped at Wawona, but we had a communication breakdown and I thought we were going to carry on to Oakhurst about 20 miles further on. After yet more road-works, we did stop at Fish Camp where the village shop sold us some sandwiches. After eating these, we did carry on to Oakhurst where we found the Days Inn on the way into town.
Hotel - Days Inn, Oakhurst
Weather - Clear skies and sunny. Cold to start with, but warmed up quite quickly. By the time we arrived in Oakhurst it was in the 90s
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